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Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections

This tomb figure of a fully laden camel suggests the flourishing overland trade carried along the Silk Route that stretched from the Chinese capital of Chang-an to its western terminus in Constantinople (Istanbul). The modeling of the ungainly camel is rendered naturalistically and reveals a loving attention to detail, down to the slab of dried meat and water flasks on the saddle. The size of the tomb figures of animals and other representations of daily life that were customarily buried with the deceased was regulated by law. This exceptionally large and impressive piece from the Museum's outstanding group of Tang tomb figures must have been commissioned for a high-ranking member of the nobility as a testimony of his wealth in this life and a reassurance to his departed spirit in the afterlife. Chang-an was a major center for the production of the tomb figures, and its potters discovered new glazing techniques that produced the rich tones of green, yellow, and brown seen on this camel. Felice Fischer, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 27.